


The Unknown

by Snowfiredragon78



Category: Ghost of Tsushima (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Japanese Mythology & Folklore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27789418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowfiredragon78/pseuds/Snowfiredragon78
Summary: Jin lived where others didn’t.His mother said the gods blessed him at his birth with a fox outside the door to her birthing room.Jin survived the impossible.Makes one think his mother was onto something doesn’t it?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	1. The fallen Samurai who walked

Jin was dead.

His heart was stilled on the beach and his breath was stolen from his lungs by invader’s hands.

His blood joined many other’s in the sand on the Gods’ Forsaken day.

But unlike others that fell; he got back up.

(Jin Sakai got back up when he shouldn’t have)

He stumbled and groaned and hissed in pain, but he walked. His knees were weak and his hands shook and his vision bleary, but he walked.

When his knees gave way and back to the blood soaked sand he went; he crawled. 

(Like something out of a grave.)

It turned out crawling was easier then walking. And when crawling became too hard and his vision was as clouded as the ocean with a storm raging above or a man drowning in blood; small hands grabbed his face and pulled him up. 

They pulled him up and onto thin shoulders.

Jin Sakai, heir and unofficial Lord of Clan Sakai and nephew of Lord Shimura; the Jito of Tsushima, was dead. He died on the beach with the waves of the Sea as one final lullaby and the Full Moon a final witness to his last moments in his life.

But yet..

He still breathes. Skin cold from the night and not from death. Eyes closed from his healing and well earned sleep and not in death. Death had come to beach and took many into it’s arms; it may have touch Jin but it did not take him.

Jin breathes in a small camp near a small village being ran sacked by invaders with a fox next his head and the moon shinning bright.


	2. The Fallen Samurai who Attacked

Small Hands, a woman by the name of Yuna, was harsh.

She may have patched his back and healed wounds but she was no caring healer.

“What’s your name?” She asked as she looked out the window. They were in the small village that Jin woke up next to.

“Jin Sakai,” he whispered. He threw on the broken armor and strapped on his katana to his side.

Yuna looked back at Jin with wide eyes and a look that was thoughtful. “The clan?”

“Yes.”

“Huh,” she raised her head to look better at the invaders. “They’re on the move, let’s go!”  
Jin followed her and like thieves in the night they sneak, run, and hide. They heard screams; Jin stops but Yuna didn’t.

Children crying, women begging, and bodies falling to the ground. “Come back later,” Yuna whispered, “You can’t help them now.” He took a deep breath and followed her advise.

He had to find his uncle. And when he did; he would come back and free them.

Hopefully.

(Hopefully they can last that long.)

“Do you know where Lord Shimura is?” Jin asked.

“East. Along the coast.”

Along the coast. Castle Kaneda. The gateway to the rest of the island.

“Thank you.”

He stood there for a moment as Yuna ran to the stables. He survived something no else did. His uncle was captured and Jin was saved a harsh women who attacked invaders from behind.

He didn’t quite know to think.

A cold nose rubbed into his back and Jin turned around. A beautiful black horse with bright eyes and red mane and tail; stood in front of him. It bore the saddle of a samurai but no name was engraved; no samurai clan to return to or name to be called by.

Jin pets the nose and leans close. He whispers Nobu, Trust, into it’s ears. And as he gets on it’s back and rides away from the village and it’s crying, screaming, and begging people; he has one thought.  
He woke in pain from the wounds on his back but as he rides away: he feels no pain.

+The Unknown+

The ride to the castle was easy.

Nobu was surprisingly very quiet. It’s hooves were nothing more then a dull thud. It’s breathing was nearly silent as autumn leaves falling to the ground. It’s gait was smooth and steady.

But one thing was odd about Nobu.

Samurai horses were bred with hardiness and loyalty in mind: not speed. And Nobu was very fast and didn’t seem to be slowing down. Nobu took Jin all the way to the castle and as Jin slid off it’s back; he gave the black horse a push away.

Jin may have walked away Komoda but he didn’t know if he was walking away from Castle Kaneda.

  
+The Unknown+

He was covered in blood.

The smell was stained to his nose and clothes.

Yuna had fallen back to the gate and was waiting at the river for him.

With one flick of the wrist his blade was clean but his hands will never be clean. When he was a child, still learning the way of the Samurai, he killed a man in defense of his Uncle. And with Mongols dead on the ground around him; he wondered: how bloody will his hands be in the end?  
Wether the end be his death or the Khan’s and his follow invaders.

“Khotun Khan! I have come for my uncle!”

Khotun Khan walked out of his stolen strong hold with thundering steps.

His blank eyes stared into Jin’s and Jin knew two things at that moment: one, Khotun Khan was large, bigger then anyone he knew or even seen, and two, Jin felt something in his bones.  
It wasn’t fear he knew that feeling well; from the death of his father, the aftermath of it, the beach, and the capture of his uncle, and everything in between.

Yes, Jin knew fear.

But this wasn’t fear it was something else.

It, this odd feeling, was burrowed deep into his bones.

It was an animal that bit and chewed and made a nest in his body.

This creature wasn’t there the day before and wasn’t there on the way to the castle.

But it was now.

And as Jin fought for his life on the bridge with his uncle’s eyes starting down into him. The creature on circled from it’s nest. And as Jin went over the edge of the railing with Khotun Khan stared down after him; the creature’s eyes opened.

Jin hit the water with enough speed and height to kill any mortal. The current took Jin from but not far enough.

His eyes opened and as he crawled onto the rocky beach.

(He was crawling on his hands and knees again.)

He stared up at the sky and let his head back to the ground; not minding the rocks digging into him.

He survived.

(Again)

“Jin!” A panicked voice, Yuna, called out.

He pushed himself up.

(The creature perked up)

And walked to Yuna.


	3. A Sensei Archer

Jin needed an army.

He needed allies.

He needed people to help recuse his uncle.

Jin was lord to the Sakai Clan. But his clan wasn’t the most popular or populace clan. Most of the Samurai that could call a bond to the Clan were apart of the Clan because of Jin’s father. With the death his father most left and those who didn’t leave were killed on the beach.

Jin leaned up against a tree and watched Nobu graze.

He had an ally in Yuna and through her to her brother. But a thief and her blacksmith brother won’t be enough.

He needed more.

But who to go to for help?

Most Samurai were dead.

Jin was the only free surviving Samurai on the island.

The wind picked up and a white blossom from a flowered tree drifted pass and landed on Nobu’s back.

The same type of blossom that were swirling and dancing around the day he put his father to rest. The same mourning white that everyone was wearing that day. Jin remembered that day well; he remember the wailing of the villager, the long walk up to the funeral pyre, and the condolences that everyone was handing out to him.

He knew Sensei Ishikawa was-

Sensei Ishikawa.

He wasn’t there at the beach. He wasn’t there.

He settled in a village, Hiyoshi Springs, far from any Clan.

If Jin played his cards right then he could hopefully get one of the best archers since Tadayori Nagao, on his side.

+The Unkown+

Hiyoshi Springs was a calm, safe, and loud. It was untouched by the mongols.

The people of Hiyoshi Springs were talking about mongols, but no invader had come to their gate to demand their submission and their women’s bodies, the lives of the men, and the life long servitude of their children.

The village was in it’s own bumble. Safe, sound, and secure. But as Jin walked through the village; he came something Other.

A samurai who survived the defeat at Komoda.

The ghost that came back to wreak vengeance on those who killed him.

The last Samurai fighting for Tsushima’s freedom.

Jin walked through Hiyoshi Spring with a fast pace; with the whispers of the villagers at his back.

(The creature snorted at the rumors.)

The smells and noise of the village was a shock in an odd way. It wasn’t that far in the pass that life was normal. Where every village was filled with haggling of peasants with the merchants, where one didn’t fear walking from your home to your fields, one didn’t fear going to one village to the other, and one where you could go any shrine a pray.

But life wasn’t normal any more.

In a blink of a eye Jin’s life and everyone’s life in Tsushima changed for the worse. It went from familiar, kind, and loud, to blood stained, cold, and quiet.

Villages were never supposed to be quiet. They were made to loud and warm.

And yet, Jin has found too many houses, farms, and villages; far too quiet to be anything but the invader’s fault.

Jin walked to the Inn filled with life.

“Hello?” Jin called out. His voice cut through the hustle and bustle of the workers. The noise quilted down but didn’t disappear.

Let’s hop it never does.

“Yes?” An older man asked.

“I’m looking for Sensei Ishikawa.”

The man looked at Jin for a moment, “Wasn’t the Sensei at the beach?”

“No.”

“Oh, well follow me. I’ll take you to his place of living.”

Jin followed the man at a steady pace. He was led farther away from the village and as they walked up a small bridge the man asked a question. “Why did the Sensei leave the Nagao Clan?” A question many people have always wondered.

Why did one of the best archers on the island leave a clan full of them.

The Nagao Clan were considered the best archers ever to grace the island. Sensei Ishikawa was the best archer since Tadayori.

One day the Sensei was there and training the archers and then gone the next. Like winter snow in the spring sun.

And now this man was living on top of a rocky hill.

“I don’t know why, no one does.”

“Oh,” the man said. “He lives up there.”

  
+The Unkown+ 

He climbed up the cliff.

He jogged up the rest path.

He arrived at the Ishikawa training building and opened the door.

Jin stopped.

(The creature perked up.)

Blood was on the ground. Blood covered arrows laid close by. Bloody footsteps led away from the chaos to another house.

“Ishikawa? Sensei Ishikawa!” Jin called out as he followed the footsteps.

He pulled open the door to Ishikawa’s house and was met with a pulled back bow with a notched arrow.

(The creatures ears flattened but it was focused.)

“Sensei?”

“Sakai?” Ishikawa asked. “I thought you were dead.”

“No.”

(Jin wasn’t meant to died yet.)

Ishikawa nodded.

“What happened?” Jin asked.

“Mongols.”

Jin sighed. As long as they weren’t going to the village.

Jin helped Ishikawa track the invader’s and retake a fort.

As the truth of the attack on the Ishikawa house to light; Ishikawa turned toward Jin. “Help me track down Tomoe and bring her terror to an end and will help you with your uncle.”

Jin smiled. “Of course.”


	4. Chapter 4

Lady Masako was much the same as Ishikawa. “Help me averaged my family and I will join in freeing your uncle.” She said. “Help me bring Tomoe to justice and I will join your cause.” Ishikawa said.

They all wanted something from him.

But didn’t Jin want something from them? He wanted their help in saving his uncle. With every person he saves and helps; in the back of his mind he wants them to help him.

Including Yuna. 

But unlike the other’s; Yuna was the same as him.

Jin's only family was his uncle. Yuna’s only family was her brother. Both family members were in the hands mongols.

Jin approached Yuna as she was arguing with a saki seller named Kenji.

Kenji was selling his wares to the invaders but he was trusted by Yuna and the invaders. It was with the trust of the mongols that Jin and Yuna was going to save Taka.

Hidden away in a cart full of alcohol and some food: Jin and Yuna sat quietly.

They were quieter then a fox's breath.

But the closer that they got to the city walls – the more Yuna’s nails dug into Jin’s knee.

“Don’t.” Her eyes said. Jin closed his eyes and tried to shut out the screams, cries, and the pleading of his people. “It's not worth it.” She whispered.

But it was worth it! He wished his eyes could say back to her. He wished he could say it out loud; to yell it to the island, to the invaders as he rips the sips from their hands and sheaves his blade in their chests.

But all he can do is wait. Wait and pray to unhearing gods that he will live long enough to do that.

The ride in was unsteady. And the escape from the wagon and the stocking of the camp leader even more so.

“Roof tops.” Jin said.

“No need to tell me twice.” Yuna said back.

They traveled together; Jin leading with Yuna bring up the end.

The smell of death, the sounds of screams, and all the suffering, had made Jin stop. Forthe last free samurai, he should have gotten used to it, but it seemed like he wasn’t. Or maybe it was just Amazo Bay and all it’s suffering that was making him like this. Like a green horned child that couldn’t save his father.

“Save Taka,” Yuna whispered. “Come back later.”

Jin stared at a man. Older then his uncle, stand tall but fall as a whip snapped against his back.

(The creature growled.)

Yuna’s keen eye followed the camp leader and pulled Jin away from the horrid sight.

The camp leader was like all the other leaders. Though not as well armored. A small version of the Klan. He cared a torch as he traveled to each post.

They followed at a distance. They held their breath as a blacksmith approached the camped leader and they cursed as the camp leader said he would kill Taka.

They raced to follow him. They slipped through the yard and into a house with a pillar of smoke coming from the back.

The camp leader pulled Taka from his seat and to the ground. Pleads for mercy fell from Taka’s lips as her coward on the ground.

The camp leader’s raised his sword.

But the gods were with Taka as it was Yuna’s blade that met it’s target first. It made itself a home in the camp leader’s back.

(The creature purred as the camp leader fell to the side. Kit, pup, cub, ours,)

Jin froze.

What.

Taka moved closer as Yuna covered him in a hug.

(The creature growled louder. Mine mine ours ours)

Jin grabbed his head.

“Jin. Are you alright? Yuna asked with Taka (pup kit cub) hiding behind her. 

“Yes, let go before they call reinforcements.”


End file.
